Health

Beijing, China | AFP | As soon as China abandoned its one-child policy a year ago, Zheng Xiaoyu and her husband started trying for a sibling for their nine-year-old son. Their efforts bore fruit with another boy — one of a million extra births this year. “The traditional Chinese thinking …

Neurosurgeons explain how lack of advanced technology is danger to patients The symptoms are ordinary enough in the initial stages; usually just headache that appears not to respond to treatment. But this soon advances in slightly more severe symptoms such as double vision, seizures, and difficulty in speech. At this …

Paris, France | AFP |  Pregnancy causes “long-lasting” physical changes to a woman’s brain, with significant, but seemingly beneficial, grey matter loss in parts of the crucial organ, a study said. Some alterations lasted at least two years, they reported, but did not appear to erode memory or other mental …

COMMENT: By Matshidiso Moeti Ghana’s insurance scheme and Ethiopia’s a cadre of health-extension workers prove it is achievable Three years ago, a young boy in rural Guinea fell victim to the Ebola virus. An epidemic soon took hold of West Africa. By the time it was contained, it had killed …

With new vaccines coming at increasing prices, parents are facing tough choices The numbers of children receiving vaccinations in Uganda is up and the government’s recent move to pass a law criminalising anti-immunisation sentiments appears to be partly behind the surge. The increasing popularity of vaccination has experts like Dr. …

Days after the murder of Maj. Sheikh Muhammad Kiggundu on Nov.26, the police arrested Sheikh Yahya Mwanje, the acting Tabliq Sect leader at Nakasero Mosque for interrogation in connection with the death of the former. Maj Kiggundu was shot dead together with his body guard at Masanafu, a Kampala suburb. …

As a way of improving the country’s ability to provide reproductive, maternal and child health services, the Ministry of Health has tabled before Parliament a proposal to borrow $110m (390bn) from the International Development Association, an arm of the World Bank. Dr Jane Aceng, Minister for Health while appearing before …

Mulago National Referral Hospital is again in the spotlight, after being dragged to the High Court by a mother who claims that her baby went missing in the hands of Mulago staff on December 26,2015. Fatuma Nakayima and Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) have sued the Executive Director …

Ottawa, Canada | AFP | Once the world’s top producer of asbestos, Canada said Thursday it will ban the heat-resistant fibrous mineral that is woven into building and other materials but which has been found to cause cancer. In a statement, government ministers of health, science and the environment said …

In this week’s issue of The Independent: COMMENT Yahya Jams: Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s decision to cling to power after initially conceding defeat in the Dec.01 election might be a result of his fear about how the victorious opposition might treat him. That has lessons for those opposing President Yoweri …